Trolley-pole restrainer



('No Model.)

1?. WHEELER. TROLLEY POLE RESTRAINER.

No. 538,569. Patented Apr. 30; 1895.

EA /r WHEEL ER Witnesss:

Attorney.

m: "can as mins 00.. PHOTD-UTND" WASHINGTON. o c.

UNITED STATES PATENT CFFTQE.

FRANK WVHEELER, OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT.

T RO LLEY-PO LE RESTRAIN ER.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 538,569, dated April 30, 1895.

7 Application filed February 8, 1895. Serial No. 537,703. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK WHEELER, of Meriden, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented new and useful Improvements in Trolley Pole Restrainers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of said invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to appliances for preventing damage by an electric-car trolley pole when it leaves the conducting wire, as often occurs at switches and elsewhere along the line. As is well known, when the trolley jumps the wire, the spring which presses the pole upward causes the trolley to move past I and above the wire, and since the cord that usually depends from the pole near the trolley.

must have considerable slack in order to allow for variations in the height of the wire above the track, the pole is thrown upward by its spring when the trolley jumps the wire, often to a distance that will result in damage to the supports for the conducting wire or other overhead work.

The object of my invention is the production of a simple attachment for a car, which attachment will be quickly and certainly operated automatically to pull down the. trolley pole immediately upon the trolley leaving the Wire and the pulling taut of the cord; and my invention consists in the features of construction, and in the combinations of parts, substantially as hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of my attachment and of so much of a car and trolley-pole as is necessary to illustrate one way in which my invention may be applied to use. Fig. 2 is a detail vertical sectional view of the attachment on a larger scale than in Fig. 1 and with a portion of the central part broken out to reduce the height of the figure. Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2,but at a right angle thereto. Flgifl: is a detail, further enlarged, showing the upper end of the attachment and illustrating means for securing the endof the pole-cord. Fig. 5 is a detail view illustrating a modification hereinafter described.

Each part represented in several views is indicated by its individual reference letter. The car platform has secured to it, preferably inside of and close to the dash-board, a

vertical tube A containing the spring and trip mechanism. This tube has a slot in one side and the lower end of the tube is enlarged, as at a, or the enlargement may consist, as shown, of a casing separate from but connected with the tube. This enlargement forms a'casing for a spring I) and a drum'or reel 0 mounted on a spindle having bearings in the walls of the casing, said drum having a cord, strap or chain csecured to it and connected at its other end with a piston-like head or block (1 adapted to slide freely in the tube which forms a guideway therefor.

The spring bis of a strength 'or power in excess of that of the spring ordinarily used to keep a trolley in contact with a conducting Wire, and said spring b is connected to the casing and to the spindle so as to cause the drum to exert a constant downward pull on the head d through the medium of the strap 0.

The head at is cut away or recessed as at d, but a portion of the metal is left at d uniting the sides at the upper end of the head, which portion may be termed a web. In the lower partof the recess two pawls, hooks or detents e e are pivoted, the upper ends of which are adapted to hook over the upper end of the tube which forms a shoulder for this purpose. The pawls or detents are pressed apart by a spring 6' and their upper ends are pivotally connected with two links ff which in turn are pivoted together and to a vertically movable pin 9 the lower end of which enters a hole g in the web (1 which hole serves to guide the pin so that it can move only in a straight line and so insure the simultaneous and equal lateral play of the two pawls. The upper end of the pin carries a pulley h as shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, or it may be a simple eyeor ring h as in' Fig. 5.

The trolleypolecord i is shown in Fig. 4 as having a metal tip 1 in which is a hole or eye 2' adapted to be engaged with a spring book i secured to the outside of the tube. Other means for securing the end of the cord at a fixed point may be employed.

A cup-shaped guard ct is formed on or secured to the upper end of the tube in order to protect the detents from accidental or mischievous disengagement or release. Then the tip t" is slipped under the pulley and passed over the edge of the guard and held at a fixed point, the attachment is ready for operation. If the trolley now leaves the conducting wire, the cord is pulled taut by the action of the pole spring, and this, through the links ff, draws the pawls or hooks e einward and disengages them from the shoulder or top of the tube. The spring I) is now free to operate and the head is immediately pulled down, the trolley being given double the amount of motion of the head, owing to the pulley acting on the double cord. Therefore if the travel of the head is eighteen or twentyfour inches, the down-haul of the trolley will be three or four feet from the point at which it pulled the cord taut.

Secured to the head and extending through a slot at in the tube, is a handle (:1 by means of which the head may be moved up in the tube, against the stress of spring 1), until the pawls have re-engaged the shoulder of the tube. The upper end of the slot forms a stop to prevent an excessive lift of the head or a strain on the spring I).

It is obvious that the strap 0 might extend around a pulley located at the bottom of the tube, and thence to a spring located under the floor of the car; and it is also obvious that in some cases, where the length of the tube is equal to whatever down-haul of the trolley is necessary, the pulley 72. may be dispensed with and the cord simply hooked to an eye as shown in Fig. 5, which eye is connected to the links and guide pin.

The attachment may be bolted to the platform of a car, in which case two attachments will be necessary, one at each end of the car; or the attachment may be portable and transferred from one platform to the other at the end of the line.

In Fig. 5 I have illustrated one way of detachably securing an attachment to the platform, It indicating a bracket projecting from the dash-board and over the casing a to resist vertical displacement, and Z indicating one of a pair of spring arms embracing the upper end of the tube to prevent lateral movement.

head through the said slot, a catch or detent for holding said head with its spring under tension, said catch or detent being adapted to be released by a pull on the trolley pole rope, and means for detachably connecting the trolley pole rope with the said head and detent mechanism.

2. Mechanism for automatically exerting a retracting tension on a trolley pole rope, comprising a movable block or head and a guideway therefor, said head having a suitable handle or projection for enabling it to be moved by hand, a spring for moving said head in a direction away from the trolley pole, a catch or detent for normally holding the head with said spring under tension, and means for detachably connecting the trolley pole ropewith the said head and detent mechanism.

3. Means for automatically lowering a trolley pole, comprising a head or block having a spring connected thereto and a handle, and carrying a pulley, a guide-way for said head or block, a detent for holding the head with its spring under tension and adapted to be released by a pull on the cord, and means for attaching the end of the cord at an accessible fixed point outside the guide-way, whereby, when the end of the cord is passed around said pulley and fixed, movement of the head is adapted to multiply the movement of the trolley.

4. A portable trolley pole restrainer comprising a tube or casing containing a movable head having detents and a spring connected with the head, the said head havingmeans extending outside the tube or casing for enabling it to be moved by hand, in combination with means at each end of the car for engaging portions of the casing to hold it in place.

5. The combination with the slotted tube A of the spring-depressed head or block cl having a handle projecting through the slot of the tube and having also the spring hooks o'r detents e e, the links ff permanently connected to each other and to the hooks, means connected with the links for the attachment of a trolley pole cord, and ashoulder near the upper end of the tube for engagement by the hooks.

6. The combination with the tubeA of the spring-depressed head or block 02 having spring books or deten ts e e, the links ff permanently connected to each other and to the books, a pulley pivotally connected with the inner ends of the links, a shoulder near the upper end of the tube for engagement by the hooks, and means for securing the end of the trolley pole cord at a fixed point.

7. The combination with the tube A of the spring-depressed head or block cl having spring books or detents e e, the links ff connected to each other and to the books, a pin pivotally connected with the inner ends of the links and carrying a pulley end extending down into a guide hole in the head or block,

a shoulder for engagement by the hooks, and pole cord, and the guard at projecting above Io means for securing the end of the trolley pole the detents and the shoulder of the tube.

cord at a fixed point. In testimony whereof I affix my signature D 8. A trolley pole restrainer comprising in in presence of two subscribing witnesses. its constructlon the tube A havlng a shoulder, I FRANK WHEELER.

the spring-operated head 01 having detents e e, the links f f permanently connected to each Witnesses:

other and t0 the detents, means connected A. CHAMBERLAIN, with the links for the attachment of a trolley O. H. WOOD. 

